Winning Big Fish at Monsters on the Ohio earns prize money and braggin’ rights for the lucky anglers. Doing it twice had never happened before.
Prefishing had uncovered some fish for the B’n’M team of Jody and Trish Beavin. “We had found an inside bend up river from Cannelton, Indiana,” revealed Jody. “It had been holding fish for the past 2 weeks. We decided on Friday to go up and see if the fish was still there. We had a phenomenal day, catching 10 fish in one drift. Six of them were over 35 inches.”
Based on their discovery Jody told Trish that they would go back to that spot on tournament day and fish it hard ahead of the cold front that was moving in. “I believe those fish were feeding up on Friday and would likely shut off on Saturday,” said Jody. “We started the morning with a 40 minute run up river. I knew no other boat would be in the bend because nobody ever fishes it.”
As fate would have it the fish were there, but they wouldn’t bite like they did before. “The wind was furious,” exclaimed Jody. “It was probably the worse I have ever tried to drift in. We were suspending our baits close to bottom and trolling up river into the wind. We were trying to go as slow as possible without the wind pushing us backwards. We had to have the Minn Kota Ulterra on level five to run up river.”
The bite was tough, but the pair caught a one-pound blue and had several other bites. “Around 10 am Tricia’s rod doubled over,” said Jody. “She reeled down and the fish started peeling drag. That B’n’M rod was pinned in the rod holder and drag was pouring out. Tricia looked at me and told me to get it.”
Jody grabbed the rod and shut off the trolling motor. “I have caught several fish bigger than this one, but never had one fight as hard as this one did. I told Trish this fish could be a monster. The fish held bottom for five minutes then slowly let me fight him to the surface where Trish netted him like a champ. We got him in the livewell and started our drift again.”
They only managed one more 15-pound fish in the boat, but had two more solid fish hooked. “Those two just came off the hook about half way to the boat,” explained Jody.
As is often the case in catfishing, credit for the catch goes to both anglers. “I say me and Tricia caught the fish. She reeled down and hooked him; I got him to the boat; and she dipnetted him. We are the only team to ever catch Big Fish twice in the Monsters on the Ohio tournament,” Jody said happily.
“Most people see this as a big fish (which it is),” said Trish in a Facebook post. “We see it as another fish finder for the back of the boat, 6 new reels, and the nice bait cooler we have been eyeing. Ha ha! We are quite proud of our mean fish and was blessed to have him on a tough day.”
Jody and Trish’s Ohio River blue catfish weighed 53.4 pounds and earned them a check for $4,000.
Both Jody and Trish thanked Aaron Wheatley and his staff for putting on an outstanding tournament. “Aaron Wheatley did a great job and as always the tournament was top notch. His staff was wonderful and work hard.”
